It seems if you are going to use a single pole, you have no choice but to put the whole mess at the top. If you try to mount the rainbucket further down on the same pole, i.e. 2’ above the ground, the pole itself will block the rain and perhaps cause some sort of swirling action? That is why I though you would need the 33’ pole for the anemometer and another pole some distance away with the rest of the stuff on it or perhaps three poles. The short one for the bucket, the medium one for the temp, and the tall one for the anemometer. If you also had a solar or UV sensor you wouldn’t want a pole shadow to fall across it so it would probably be on your tallest pole too. It looks like in your picture that you have bushes around the pole taller than the pole? That is my problem…the trees near my current pole aren’t taller but will be in a matter of a few years and there are trees further away that are 60-80’ tall so I just need to stay a long ways from them. I saw a formula somewhere for how far you needed to be away from taller things to reduce or eliminate any interference?
I could be wrong, but it seems that air temp is about the only thing that wouldn’t be as sensitive to location as other readings?
I had an errand this afternoon so I though I would drive by the two stations nearest to me to see what their equipment was and how they had it sited.
The first stop was the area airport. The CWOP map shows their WS in the middle of the runway which I knew wasn’t likely. Turned out there weather station was several blocks away and didn’t even appear to be on the airport property. Was in a cornfield near a cemetary. I couldn’t get there from the airport so I thought I would pay it a visit some other day.
The other site I stopped by was the closest personal station, a Davis. They guy had it mounted on his chimney. It was one of those fake chimneys that doesn’t even extend above the apex. His station was on a short pole and his non-aspiriated temp sensor wasn’t even a foot above the roof, if even that. So his sensor was non-aspirated and had to be consumed by heat from the brown shingled roof. The only saving grace was it was a 2-story house so there was probably some wind. I am guessing he was either relinquishing to the better half or wanted his station to be “low profile”. Also, not more than 20’ or so away was a tree taller than the roof of his house. On my next jaunt I will go by the other airport just south of me and another person station just north of me. The one north of me has problems. The CWOP map shows his registered location and his APRS location to be .9 mile apart? I don’t know how APRS knows such things?
Anyway, his barometer is WAY off…he not only gets two thumbs down in MADIS, but his site stands out like a sore thumb compared to other stations in the area.
Anchorage, my current anemometer is mounted on a old Martin house pole that was in the yard. The Martin house got ripped off when what I think was a tornado came through, or nearly through.
I think you are also sacrificing your rain reading as supposedly there is more wind the higher you go and the higher wind keeps all of the rain from falling into the bucket?
I saw those quite elaborate fence looking things people have mounted around their rain buckets. In fact, I think they were actually a commercially made product to block “all” wind from reaching the bucket.
Thanks again guys,
Lew